I’ve clearly read too much Wind in the Willows recently. Mention boat people and Mr ‘Ratty’ Water Rat »Messing about in boats » springs to mind. Somewhere in that observation, there is a connection to an interview with Michael Thai Trung King in the Irish Times. Apparently he was one of the sons of that generation, one of the first to gain a PhD, and unquestionably the first to represent Ireland at the WAGC. The latter of course isn’t covered in the interview, which took place a few years earlier. See Ranka for the interview with James Davies.